Date Published:
April 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Joseph Raymond Fournier Préfontaine

Préfontaine, Joseph Raymond Fournier (1850-1905), minister of marine and fisheries for Canada (1902-5), was born at Longueuil, Lower Canada, on September 16, 1850, and was educated at St. Mary's College, Montreal, and at McGill University (B.C.L., 1873). He was called to the bar of Quebec in 1873 (Q.C., 1893), and practised law for many years in Montreal. He represented Chambly in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1875 to 1881, and in the Canadian House of Commons from 1886 to 1896. In 1896 he was returned to the Com­mons for Maisonneuve; in 1898 he was elected mayor of Montreal ; and in 1902 he was appointed minister of marine and fisheries in the Laurier government. He died at Paris France on December 26, 1905 In 1876 he married Hermantine, daughter of the Hon. J. B. Rolland, a senator of Canada.

Source : W. Stewart Wallace, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. V, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 401p., pp. 152-153.